Idiots

The title should adjust your expectations accordingly in Idiots, a broad comedy that at least isn’t guilty of false advertising.

Within a familiar road-trip structure, this silly yet scrappy saga generates scattered laughs from its banter and bickering, but rarely rises to the heights of its throwback buddy-comedy influences.

The story follows a mismatched tandem of cash-strapped schemers, the relatively straightlaced and well-intentioned Davis (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) — recently fired from a church job after hilariously taking kids on a field trip to see Lars von Trier’s Antichrist — and impulsive loose cannon Mark (Dave Franco).

Their ill-conceived plan revolves around a transportation outfit commissioned by a wealthy family to take rebellious teenager and wannabe influencer Sheridan (Mason Thames) to a drug rehab facility.

In an effort to sabotage the plan, the spoiled adolescent engages in mind games while concealing that his recalcitrant and mean-spirited outbursts are rooted in more serious mental struggles. Still, he gets under Mark’s skin.

The trio veers off course with a series of self-inflicted mishaps and oddball encounters, including with a radicalized SoundCloud rapper and opportunistic grifter (Nicholas Braun) who suspects Sheridan has been kidnapped.

Things spiral into chaos after they cross paths with the leader of a mercenary gang (Peter Dinklage), entangling Davis and Mark in a conspiracy that’s even further over their heads, forcing them to find common ground just to survive.

Indulging in abundant quirks and non sequiturs, the film awkwardly transitions into violent and more dramatic territory in the second half, but without the necessary emotional depth or moral complexity.

The edgy screenplay by director Macon Blair (The Toxic Avenger) captures a certain millennial slacker vibe while lightly satirizing wealth, privilege, and viral fame in the social-media age.

Even as the dim-witted title characters win us over as lovable losers, their outrageous circumstances become increasingly contrived instead of clever.

Likewise, although their misfit rapport is endearing — thanks primarily to committed portrayals by Jackson and Franco — their misadventures never feel grounded in reality as they evolve into bumbling action heroes.

Davis wears a perpetual look of exasperation that carries over to moviegoers in Idiots, which spins its wheels before reaching its final destination.

Rated R, 98 minutes.